warm - chiefvalue 500gb SATA drives $104.99 shipped

konakona

Diamond Member
May 6, 2004
6,285
1
0
Cliffs: use $5 off $100 coupon (appears once you put the item in the shopping cart) to get either drive for $104.99 shipped

I did a fair bit of reading over at SR and SPCR before I finally ordered a new hdd yesterday, and the general consensus seems to be that these are the two best drive to go for in the market at the moment.

The Samsung has
+ lowest/most pleasant idle/seek noise by far
+ very solid performance
- lots of vibration, noticeably more than competitors' (acoustic suspension strongly recommended)

The Hitachi has
+ highest overall performance
+ by far the least amount of heat generated for moderate to low load
+ low vibration
+ quite decent idle noise
- somewhat noticeable seek noise

Though WD 5000AAKS looks like another well rounded product, there were some complaints about whines at idle, the drive being considered generally inferior to samsung's for noise considerations. Maxtor/Segate are noticeably louder than Samsung/WD and the performance is a tad worse than Hitachi's.

Newegg has the Samsung drive for $109.99 shipped, and the Hitachi drive for $109.99 + $4.99 3day Fedex shipping.

ripped from techbargains
Chief Value is offering:
$5 off Orders $99+
$7 off Orders $149+
$9 off Orders $199+
with Coupon Code: CPNVFSFVF56 Exp 11/5. Tax in CA, NJ, PR, TN.
 

ncage

Golden Member
Jan 14, 2001
1,608
0
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hitachi are definitly my favorite. I have been VERY happy with their HD. I might be willing to spend a little more and get perpendicular recording technology and performance of raptors (750GB and 1TB models).
 

IEC

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Jun 10, 2004
14,608
6,094
136
Tempting, I am sorely in need of a drive newer than my 7200.7s and my 80GB Samsung SpinPoint :p
 

konakona

Diamond Member
May 6, 2004
6,285
1
0
Originally posted by: ncage
hitachi are definitly my favorite. I have been VERY happy with their HD. I might be willing to spend a little more and get perpendicular recording technology and performance of raptors (750GB and 1TB models).

raptors are faster, but atrociously loud and marginally faster for some of us. different stroke for different folks though, this is for those that care about noise and performance.

I ordered on wednesday night and it is almost here... hope it gets delivered tomrrow :D